Awe, Wonder and Interest in Primary Science What does it mean

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Awe, Wonder and Interest in Primary Science
What does it mean?

• Ian Milne

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Abstract.

• In April 2005 NZASE hosted four primary science
  education conferences throughout New Zealand that
  explored the notion of awe wonder and interest in
  science. Three leading UK primary science
  educators Brenda Keogh, Stuart Naylor, and Anne
  Goldsworthy gave key note addresses and lead
  workshops that identified situations and
  strategies that create an environment that
  enhances childrens interest and wonder towards
  being involved in primary science activities.
  This presentation identifies and summarises some
  of the key messages that were shared by the
  speakers at each conference. The notion of awe,
  wonder and interest and what it means for primary
  science will be discussed with references being
  made to practical examples of strategies and
  techniques that can be used by teachers to
  further develop the natural fascination and
  motivation young children exhibit towards their
  involvement in science activity.

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• Awe, Wonder and Interest in Science
• 17th April to 30th April 2005

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• Four regional conferences
• Dunedin
• Christchurch
• Wellington
• Auckland

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Engagement - Enhancing childrens interest and
wonder towards primary science activities

• National context
• Science in Primary Schools
• Awe wonder and Interest as a key aim of primary
  science.
• Aesthetic experiences
• Fascination
• Personal perceptions
• Types of Experiences

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Relating A W I to teaching and learning

• Exploration
• Wonder
• Teachers role and sharing
• Engaging teachers and engaging learners
• Puppets
• Concept cartoons in science

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Current NZ Context

• Curriculum Stock take
• Curriculum Project
• Reviewing of Aims of science Education and
  Essence Statement
• Key competencies
• Assessment initiatives
• Exemplars
• NEMP
• Content /knowledge emphasis

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Key Competencies in NZ Curriculum(Working Draft)

• Relating to Others
• Managing Self
• Belonging (participating and contributing)
• Using Knowledge and Information (thinking)
• Using Language, Symbols and Texts (making
  meaning)

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Examples of children doing science

• 10 year old in 1930s in a UK school
• 4 year old making mud pies
• 8 year old exploring paper
• All three perceived themselves as scientists

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What do we mean by science

• Current explanation of nature/natural world
• Process by which the explanation is formed and
  accepted

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Science in schools

• Childrens science
• Creative explanations based on personal evidence
• School science
• The science I need to know
• Science of the world
• Result of curiosity or economy

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Awe, Wonder and Interest. Key aim of primary
science education

• Research findings should be used by classroom
  teachers to stimulate joy, wonder,
  satisfaction and delight in children as a result
  of their encounters with science (Gardener,1975)
  
• Sustain and develop the curiosity of young people
  about the natural world around them, and build up
  their confidence in their ability to enquire into
  its behaviour. It should seek to foster a sense
  of wonder, enthusiasm and interest in science so
  that people feel confident and competent to
  engage with scientific and technical matters.
  (Millar Osborne 1998, p.12)

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In NZ this call for experiencing and showing awe
wonder and interest

• Was identified by exemplar project as a key
  aspect of learning when students are
  developing interest in science and the
  environment. and
• Features promptly in the draft essence statement
  for the science as part of the current
  developments in the curriculum project.

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Experiencing and Showing Awe, Wonder, and interest

• At all levels, science education fosters
  students ability to
• Display curiosity about the world around them
• Demonstrate enthusiasm and excitement about how
  science works
• Take an interest in a particular science topic
• Become absorbed in a science related activity
• Pursue science interests without prompting,
  outside the formal learning environment
• Display initiative and commitment when seeking
  answers to their questions
• Express awe and wonder and enthusiasm about an
  observation, experience or idea/explanation
• Develop and declare an interest in some aspect of
  science or the environment
• Persevere to solve problems and overcome
  difficulties while pursuing their own interest in
  science

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First aim of science education from the draft
essence statement

• Foster awe, wonder and engagement in the natural
  world and help develop the knowledge, skills and
  attitudes for its stewardship.

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Similar call from science educators adopting an
environmental, aesthetic approach

• Who call for a more phenomenological approach to
  the teaching of science that encompasses
• Fascination,
• Anticipation and
• Engagement
• Arising from aesthetic experiences of the natural
  world and in the process the learners seek
  understanding of personal experiences of natural
  phenomena.

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Learners aesthetic perspectives and responses to
experiences can play a significant role in their
all round learning. (Dahlin, 2001)

• Aesthetics perspective is a point of view which
  cultivates a careful and exact attention to all
  the qualities inherent in sense experience.
• The object of such an approach to natural
  phenomena would be not merely to appreciate
  beauty but, also to understand them.
• Facts of an experience are put into focus,
  elucidated and interpreted in order that we
  better understand them and ourselves.

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Aesthetic Experiences

• An aesthetic experience is
• an elemental mode of awareness, one special way
  we make contact with experiential content, that
  which is the focus of attention of a special sort
  of appreciationaesthetic appreciation is a
  primary perspective involving those qualities of
  sensation and affect that draw us to and repel us
  from the world of experience by the way not of
  survival and benefit, but of fascination
  (Godlovitch, 1998 p.3).

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Example

• In your minds draw a picture of a picture of a
  pine cone.
• Note the outline of the picture and identify the
  shape that you see.

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Fascination develops early in life and stands

• Proxy for a cluster of terms all of which accent
  a powerfully personal bond (analogous to
  affection) that develops in an aesthetic
  experience between the subject and object of the
  experience.
• Terms, include attachment, contact, capture,
  engagement, encounter resonance and the like
  (Godlovitch 1998)

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Aesthetic experience and the creation of personal
perceptions

• These perceptions according to Solomon(2004) can
  be placed on a continuum
• Awakening of senses
• Growth of wonder
• Marvelling
• Being curious
• Seeking causes
• Scientific explanations

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Experiences of AWI and subsequent perspectives
can be classified as being

• Spiritual
• Motivated through need and necessity
  (Utilitarian)
• Fashion/marketing
• Value/respect
• Personal arising or relating to previous
  experiences
• Pure curiosity

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Spiritual

• Can be both from a religious or secular
  perspective.
• Looking at stars and appreciating nature.
• Direct reference to God or creator

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A spiritual perspective is evident in Richard
Continos poemOne Planet

• Take one planet
• abundantly blessed
• with seed- bearing plants
• fruit-bearing trees
• varied mixtures of winged creatures
• and animals small and great
• that walk the earth
• and swim the seas,
• sprinkle lightly a dash of blue sky
• and flavour with a hearty addition
• of sparkling,
• now set an environment
• of galaxies and space,
• and add mankind.

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Next,

• Heavily dose them with awe and
• wonder with what surrounds them.
• Add several ounces of respect for what they
  behold.
• Generously blend in an attitude of
• consideration,
• add spices of concern
• and hope,
• mix a healthy tablespoon of sharing
• gently stirring a touch of curiosity,
• coat in an icing of continual humility.
• Should be served daily as an offering to the
  creator

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Utilitarian

• Experiences motivated through,
• need
• Problem solving (Bishops Hat)

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Fashion

• Used by marketing
• Setting trends
• Superficial

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Value / Respect

• Awesome power of nature (Tsunami)
• Awesome influence of the Pope as signalled by the
  6 million attend the funeral

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Beauty
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Personal enjoyment and pleasure

• Often related to
• Personal experiences
• Interest
• Over time
• Both teachers and students will have them.
• (Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang,)

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Pure curiosity

• The affective dimension that drives human beings
  to understand reality.
• Being curious is usually an attribute of a person
  doing science.

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Einstein s thought processes as reported by
Singh (2004)

• Einsteins youthful prowess and his later full
  blown genius sprang largely from his immense
  inquisitiveness about the world around him.
  Throughout his prolific, revolutionary and
  visionary career he never stopped wondering about
  the underlying laws that governed the universe.
  Even at the age of five, he became engrossed in
  the mysterious workings of a compass given to him
  by his father. What was the invisible force that
  tugged at the needle, and why did it always point
  to the north? The nature of magnetism became a
  lifelong fascination, typical of Einsteins
  insatiable appetite for exploring apparently
  trivial phenomena.

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• As Einstein told his biographer Carl Selig I
  have no special talents. I am only passionately
  curious He also noted The important thing is
  not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
  reason for existing one cannot help but be in awe
  when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity,
  of life, of the marvellous structure of reality.
  It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a
  little of this mystery every day (p.98).

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Incorporating these perspectives into teaching
and learning

• Creative Exploration
• An approach that stresses the importance of
  children seeking understanding of the phenomena
  involved in the aesthetic experience

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Young children and their creative perceptions

• Young children are naturally creative as they
  seek to create explanations arising from their
  involvement in aesthetic experiences with the
  environment.
• These unique perceptions are often strongly held
  and may influence how they respond to later
  experiences and future thinking.

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Primary science education is about childrens
science

• Childrens thinking and understanding about
  natural phenomena is at the heart of primary
  science?
• Childrens explanations that are supported by
  evidence are the starting points for all science
  enquiry.

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The key, exploratory activities that provide rich
aesthetic experiences

• which,
• assist the development of a sense of wonderment
• generate a depth of engagement and anticipation
  for the learning involved.
• The experiences will allow the children to
• firstly, create their own explanations
• secondly, investigate create and evaluate new and
  novel explanations for the phenomena involved.

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Exploratory activities

• The exploratory activities must challenge the
  learners perceptions in a constructive and
  engaging manner leading to further investigation
  and wondering

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Wonder

• Wonder about. Process of science
• How does that work? What will happen if we change
  this?
• Wonder at Attitudes towards phenomena in the
  natural world
• Involves exclamations like wonderful! how
  beautiful
• Wonder whether. Values
• Should I do this? Must I do this? (Goodwin 2000)

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Role of the teacher

• Teachers role is vital in.
• The selection of experiences.
• How the activities are presented including,
• How the teacher interacts with the childrens
  responses. This can affect the manner in which
  the learner engages.
• What resources are used to promote childrens
  sharing and discussion of their thinking. Puppets
  and concept cartoons are examples of suitable
  prompts.

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Engaging Learners, Engaging Teachers (Keogh
Naylor,2005)

• Interesting objects
• Grouping and classifying
• Discovery bags
• Sharing childrens ideas
• Sing about science
• Creative writing, drawing, design
• Predict, observe, explain
• Stories and poems
• Using puppets
• Concept cartoons (Keogh Naylor,2005)

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Science investigations are more likely to be
successful when teachers

• teach children about the skills and procedures of
  investigations
• are explicit about which skills and procedures
  children will learn through doing the
  investigation (Goldsworthy (2005)

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Science investigations are more likely to be
successful when teachers

• allow children to interact with phenomena before
  they carry out investigation
• anticipate practical difficulties and provide
  good equipment for children to use.
• allow time for children to consider their
  evidence, use graphs to explore patterns, draw
  conclusions and evaluate evidence
• encourage children to argue from evidence and to
  challenge each other's results.
• use formative assessment to stimulate children to
  make progress in the skills of scientific
  investigations (Goldsworthy 2005)

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Alis story an example of aesthetic appreciation
of the environment

• Ali slowed her small steps released my hand and
  then crouched to the sidewalk. As she peered
  downward the Texan autumn sunlight bounced
  brilliant off her copper-penny hair. Our walk was
  interrupted a fallen leaf, green and gold still
  soft, had captured her attention. A chubby finger
  reached delicately to trace the vein of the leaf.
  Not yet 3, she paused for what was a rare period
  of quiet and prolonged observation. It just a
  leaf I thought with adolescent boredom, although
  I didnt mind the wait. Absently I sat next to
  her on the side walk. She raised her smiling eyes
  to look at me and said simply Its pretty, then
  dropped her gaze again to resume her study.
  Although it occurred many years ago I remember
  that afternoon well because I have often retold
  the experience. As Ali continued to look at the
  leaf, I looked too. I viewed it as through her
  eyes fresh, wonderful and captivating. My heart
  filled. My little friend was teaching me to see,
  I thought to myself, This is why I like kids.
  And the leaf was pretty. (Kemple Johnston,2002
  p210)

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It is important that we share our experiences
with other human beings.

• In doing so we develop a greater understanding of
  the phenomena involved.
• There are a number of ways in which the stories
  of how human beings interact with and perceive
  phenomena in the natural world can be told that
  includes, literature, picture books, various
  forms of other media and the explanations of
  direct experience.
• These stories can be used to assist young
  children to create a sense of awe, wonder and
  interest towards gaining the knowledge and skills
  that will assist them to develop an understanding
  the natural world.

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• What has been achieved,
• Implications for the future.

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Where to next

• Net work of primary teachers throughout NZ keen
  to be involved in further PD in science
• After evaluating this experience further
  conferences to be held in every 2 years format to
  be reviewed.
• Positive feedback about the nature of science
  programmes especially the creative factors
  liberating for many teachers
• A formal active role in NZASE leadership
• Continuing National, International and local
  links

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Contact Details

• Ian Milne
• i.milne_at_auckland.ac.nz
• Faculty of Education
• University of Auckland
• President
• NZASE